Originally, as many of you know who’ve been following the development of this film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In” was supposed to be my feature film directorial debut. Instead, I got very lucky to get a different feature off the ground, Guys Reading Poems, which is currently touring the festival circuit. Now that I’m returning to a script I began writing four years ago, I see that changes are necessary. Sigh. Rewrite.

First of all, major developments in our political landscape render the original draft looking a bit outdated after only a relatively short time. For starters, the fact that gay marriage is now the law of the land will have a big impact on the gay couple in the screenplay. I’m left with the choice of updating the script or keeping it as a “period piece” that takes place….in 2012. Updating the script is smarter.

Putting the gay marriage issue aside, I also see that there are opportunities to make pragmatic adjustments to the plot. The film tackles conflicts within the media business and a few more years going through the process of making a feature film (not to mention hearing new industry gossip) empowers me to better understand a world that I now occupy as well as observe.

And then, there’s my online philosophy class. For better or worse, all this talk of existentialism and the meaning of life really got my head spinning about some of the themes in the script. I do feel that there’s symbolic content floating around the edges of the screenplay that I may skillfully make a bit more conscious with a little luck, hard work and caffeine. So I’m going to try.

My process for rewriting always includes some unspecified amount of time existing as a sponge, internalizing ideas, inspiring works of art and music (and that online philosophy class). It’s kinda like the Time Machine for Mac computers. Somewhere in the background, without being noticed, my system is working to catalogue. But one of the hardest aspects of re-writing is moving beyond an abstract phase and actually conquering the previous draft with a red pen. Basically, my soak-up-the-ether-time with this script has been going on for the last eight to eleven months. The question then becomes, how do I start squeezing that sponge into the content of the screenplay? Where to (re) start?

For some reason, I was drawn to my favorite Shakespeare play, “Romeo & Juliet.” [Yes, my pug’s name is Romeo, too]. I really just wanted to read the prologue of the play. Since it’s so good (and in the public domain), I’ll copy/paste it for you:

“Two households, both alike in dignity. (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, Whose misadventured piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-marked love and the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, naught could remove, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage— The which, if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.”

The famous balcony of Romeo and Juliet in Verona, Italy. Juliet’s balcony

So that got me going and I decided to write a prologue to “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” I was surprised by just how quickly I was able to get it down on paper. The first new words to “Inside-Out, Outside-In” in more than three years…and effective words, too. Maybe all the sponging worked. Satisfying.

The new prologue clearly tips its proverbial hat to “Romeo and Juliet”and I’m okay with that. If you’re writing a romantic drama, you could do worse that align yourself with the most iconic star-crossed lovers of all-time.

Who knows if I’ll be able to use it? But – as an exercise – it forced me to at least attempt to sum up the script and make it exciting for audiences on page one. It forced me to find a comparison for the film. (Now, I can be one of those Hollywood douches who says….it’s “Romeo and Juliet” meets ?????? ). It forced me to start the rewrite. Several days later, my insomnia inspired me to write an epilogue, too.

Now, it’s just a matter of the 93 pages in between.

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Hunter Lee Hughes is a filmmaker and actor living and working in Los Angeles and the founder of Fatelink. His current feature film Guys Reading Poems is touring film festivals and this blog is dedicated to the process of making his second feature film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” If you enjoy the blog, please support our team by following us on Facebook, Twitter (@Fatelink) or Instagram (@Fatelink).

An intimate, elegant screening room fittingly served as the locale for our second reading of “Inside-Out, Outside-In”, unconsciously expressing the ethos and hopes of the project. At first scheduled for the more grand space on the 5th floor, I decided to relocate our reading downstairs so my WeWork colleague Kristin Nedopak could more easily access the 5th floor screening room to celebrate the release of her webseries, “Skyrim Parodies.” At first obstinate over a change requiring more emails and a slightly smaller room, I relented. After all, the number four is the number of spiritual wholeness and maybe a bit of good luck might follow a bit of a good deed. Turns out, the fifteen actors and three invited guests fit perfectly into an imperfect circle of chairs of differing sizes, styles and fabrics.

Like all readings, despite my best efforts, we started late. Still, as director, I felt is was my responsibility to properly frame the evening and send us in the right direction. So I somewhat awkwardly told our group that the script was intensely personal to me, hoping that such a revelation would increase the chances that they would also bring an intensely personal approach to the night. Building on that notion, I asked the actors to let go any sense of a “professional veneer.” Lately, I find the acting in studio films so boring because a sense of the actors’ professionalism prevents me from relating to them as human beings. They almost know the beats too well – it’s like watching an emotionally resonant cuckoo clock. Even at an early stage, I didn’t want to see that happen to my actors. So I suggested they see the reading as a “practice round” and encouraged them to just be a human being in a situation, not a professional actor at a reading.

Just before we dove in, television’s Rex Lee once again blurted out a quote of the night, “Is that buzzing, like, going to go on for infinity?” Apparently, a smoke alarm needed more acknowledgement than a roomful of actors and went off with annoying regularly throughout the reading. But something amazing about a good story and good acting – once we got past page 10, I didn’t hear the buzzing anymore and not because of a decrease of its decibel level.

I’d made a number of changes in the cast of the reading – about half the people were new. Sometimes, it was a result of a desire to try a new angle with the character, sometimes a scheduling conflict forced a change. Also, my friend Zsa Zsa Gershick, an accomplished playwright and director, previously implored me to see different people in many of the parts before settling on someone, as part of the process of understanding the character as deeply as possible. Indeed, the fragility of casting and character development pervades my thinking at the moment – add a few years to this character’s age and another character needs to be younger. If we go with a more quirky sensibility for one character, it requires a different character to step up as an authority, changing the requirements for the actor playing him.

An interesting addition to the evening was Jerod Meagher, an unrepresented actor just starting out at Ivana Chubbuck’s studio, where so many of us have trained. He stopped by the office a few days before the reading in hyper-ripped jeans to get some direction on the character. I immediately liked that he took notes with a pen and crudely folded piece of paper rather than an iPhone or some other secondary device. It’s a good thing if notes are fragile enough to be lost. He apparently made a good impression on at least four female attendees whose comments after the reading ranged from, “He’s got something” to “He’s sincere” to perhaps the most powerful – “I don’t know, I just like Jerod.” The ever-quirky and entertaining Tracey Verhoeven went a step further and said, “He’s just like a little angel. I mean, not like one of those fat cherub angels but like a good-looking one.” Also new this time were talented veterans Whitney Anderson, Luke Massy, Ethan Rainsand Charles Hoyes. Whitney, who recently forwarded my acting reel to a director for a mind-bending fright flick for the role of a juicy psycho guy, is one of the most helpful people to know in terms of making recommendations. She’s savvy about seeing when colleagues might be a good fit and has no problem connecting them, a refreshing attitude in this town.

Afterwards, the approval of the adjustments I made to the script were heartening and the discussion turned more to “which way to go” with certain characters and practical concerns for the shooting rather than folks suggesting major overhauls. I even got one, “It was fuckin’ awesome” from a guest. That felt good. I am still worried about the climactic scene being too talk-y and Ann Russo echoed that concern. But we both felt the visual element of the choreography in that section might compensate for a dialogue-heavy stretch. Ms. Russo easily could’ve been a colleague of mine as a story analyst. She consistently airs notes that my foggy unconscious hasn’t yet articulated, so I was especially grateful for her feedback throughout the night on characters, plot and pre-production. There’s always a chance people are holding back their doubts out of respect or fear, but I now feel confident enough with the script to go ahead and create a shooting script to schedule the film and start getting more detailed with the budget.

Speaking of budget, the one startling bit of feedback came from high fashion designer Sphetim Zero, who passionately declared that he would need $50,000 to properly costume the feature. I appreciated his ambition, but warned him that was impossible with our current budget constraints. He encouraged me to open myself up to receiving more from the Universe. I agreed to be more vigilant about hoping for the best, but warned him to think of a back-up plan. We both agreed that he would help me clothe people from their closets for the industry read in February and take it from there.

Once again, a core group ended up at Bossa Nova for late night steak. This time, Dumbass Filmmakers! producer Jason Fracaro joined myself and aspiring social media guru Richard Scharfenberg (more on this effort in a future post). Jason, back from a 10-week basic training for the Army and his inclusion in the National Guard, has a reputation as one of the best guys to know (and one of the worst gaydars – ask me privately) and he gamely filled our quota for at least one “straight guy” at the dinner. Rex arrived late and this time, we were able to order his “ribeye steak cooked ‘medium rare plus’ with plantains, extra pico de gallo, extra salsa” before he arrived. But, just like last time, he paid for all of us with the quick move of a credit card and a declaration that, “I don’t believe in splitting checks.” He’s one of those guys that picks up the check when it’s kinda expensive or a big group and lets you return the favor at a hamburger joint. Ah, friends.

Hunter Lee Hughes is a filmmaker and actor living and working in Los Angeles and the founder of Fatelink. His current feature film Guys Reading Poems is touring film festivals and this blog is dedicated to the process of making his second feature film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” If you enjoy the blog, please support our team by following us on Facebook, Twitter (@Fatelink) or Instagram (@Fatelink).

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The mundane details of life sometimes conspire against your creative process. And, if you’re anything like me, sometimes you conspire with them. These last few months I’ve felt awash in little stuff that’s mildly creative but mostly TCB, as the great Aretha Franklin might say. I’ve relaunched our Fatelink site, long due for an upgrade. I’ve attended Social Media Week, Los Angeles, to attempt to understand how to connect with my fellow indie filmmaker brethren. I’ve written and distributed loads of press releases to support Dumbass Filmmakers! and submitted our show for consideration by the IAWTV. I’ve submitted my taxes to my accountant and written my quarterly report for the LLC. But, until now, I haven’t made much progress on the rewrite of this script.

Today, I cracked open my new Mac Book Pro and started reading the script. And quickly, that developed into eliminating a lot of dialogue. A lot. Which is what always happens with a feature rewrite. And I’m pleased to report that I’m happy with the structure of the script and more dialogue will be coming out tomorrow. Stay tuned…..

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Hunter Lee Hughes is a filmmaker and actor living and working in Los Angeles and the founder of Fatelink. His current feature film Guys Reading Poems is touring film festivals and this blog is dedicated to the process of making his second feature film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” If you enjoy the blog, please support our team by following us on Facebook, Twitter (@Fatelink) or Instagram (@Fatelink).

So what to do when you get to that point in the process when you need to rewrite but haven’t yet found the fuel or perspective to deliver on the next draft? Time to do a little more research. Creating a reading list and then spending time working through some books will help distract your creative mind from the problems at hand with the script. Sometimes, a little distraction is just what my creativity needs to reboot and come up with something fresh. Plus, if the books in some way relate to the script, it’s more than a distraction. I’m subconsciously injecting new ideas, imagery and information into my brain for later use in ways that I might not be able to predict. I highly suggest choosing a range of books from fiction to non-fiction, religious texts to filmmaking tips. But that doesn’t mean just read a Nancy Drew novel for no reason. Have some idea why each book might flesh out your arsenal for the rewrite. Once you finish your list – or even before – you might find yourself renewed, armed with a sharper insight to take your first draft to second draft.

1. “In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing” by Walter Murch – My favorite book on editing. It presents a philosophy of editing, not a technical handbook. I love Mr. Murch’s ideas and grounding myself in the reality of editing before I’m even on set is always good for my shot list preparation.

2. “The Upanishads” – My film covers certain aspects of Eastern spirituality so this is a must.

3. “Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Times and Legend of James Dean” by Paul Alexander – Because my film tackles the complex secrets that successful actors sometimes carry, I looked to the life of James Dean for inspiration. This was a fast, fun read as well as being insightful into the difference between public image and reality.

4. “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque – One of my friends was once told by her boyfriend at the time, “Stop complaining. Read a war novel.” While their relationship wasn’t meant for the history books, reading a war novel certainly does bring you in touch with primal aspects of our humanity that remain under the surface in peacetime. But, as a writer-director, I always want to be in touch with the primal pain and fear of my characters, even if it’s repressed. The war novel helps me re-discover that.

5. “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” by Sogyal Rinpoche – Again, the whole Eastern spirituality thing.

6. “The Stranger” by Albert Camus – The lead characters of my film at times question the purpose of their existence, whether they ever say this out loud or not. So I thought a little dose of existentialism was in order.

7. “The Gnostic Gospels” by Elaine Pagels – I wanted to explore the intersection of Western and Eastern spirituality so the Gnostics seemed to be the way to go.

8. “Psychological Types” by Carl Gustav Jung – The film also explores introversion versus extroversion so I wanted to bone up on psychological types and archetypes and nobody does that better than Carl Jung. Also, for any script, I think it’s a good exercise to break down which personality type fits each character. It really illuminates how and why they operate in the world.

9. “Bhagavad Gita” – Are you sensing a trend?

10. “Cinematic Storytelling” by Jennifer Van Sijll – I find this book to be an extremely helpful and practical guide for storyboards and shot ideas. It integrates the visual psychology of various styles of shots, so it’s very useful brainstorming tool to start the process.

11. “The Koran” – Okay, you get the picture. But actually, “The Koran” has a very different take of religiosity and spirituality than the others and I wanted to get the perspective of a stridently monotheistic religion.

12. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” by Anonymous – This account of a warrior friendship that ultimately leads to the realization of the fragility and mortality of the human body is even more profound than “The Iliad” to me. Its poetic exploration of friendship relates to some of the issues that the friends in my screenplay face down. It’s fascinating to read about these two men dealing with a very similar conflict thousands of years ago. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

If you take a break to read a bunch of books, some might say you’re just procrastinating. And they might be right. But on the other hand, I find that the best type of creativity can’t be forced. It has to be coaxed. And ingesting new inspiration can suddenly pay off in ways you don’t expect. I feel like I haven’t been rewriting at all the last two or three weeks. I’ve been obsessed with starting this blog and with finishing editing on “Dumbass Filmmakers!” Then all of a sudden, literally right as I was falling asleep at around 2 a.m., I thought of an idea to solve the problem in the second act that bugs me the most. I’m not sure where that idea came from, but I’m pretty sure my dedication to research had something to do with it. I just can’t prove it yet.

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Hunter Lee Hughes is a filmmaker living and working in Los Angeles and the founder of Fatelink. His current feature film Guys Reading Poems is touring film festivals and this blog is dedicated to the process of making his second feature film, “Inside-Out, Outside-In.” If you enjoy the blog, please support our team by following us on Facebook, Twitter (@Fatelink) or Instagram (@Fatelink).